Text 15912, 61 rader
Skriven 2007-05-25 11:57:16 av DAVE SACERDOTE (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av JIM WELLER
Ärende: Re: Bacon
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JW> "Beer: <...> I was distressed, however, to find no warning in your
JW> page to Aussies concerning the watered-down, tasteless American
JW> beer."

JW> He must have had a Bud lite.

In all fairness, he could have had any number of regular American
lagers.  The brewery consolidations that swept the US in the mid-
1980's really kicked the hell out of the beer market.  It turned
out to be an interesting phenomena:  The US went from having 
thousands of small local brewers, to having a handful of huge
national and regional brewers, back to having thousands of small
local brewers again (only now they're not called "local breweries"
any more, they're called "microbreweries."  Pah.)  I wonder how this
could have happened so quickly?  What happened to the market in the
1980's that made so many old-line local and regional breweries
either go out of business or sell out to the giants?  And, while
I'm sorry that some local breweries didn't survive, the entire
thing is a big banner-waving advertisement for the free market at
work:  Consumer reaction against having fewer choices led directly
to the rise of "craft brewers" like Sam Adams - and once again, 
the shelves at the packies are filled with dozens of small local
and regional beers (and a few new giants like Sam's.)

What makes me even sorrier is that Rolling Rock, perhaps my 
favorite old-style American lager, managed to hold out until 
just about a year ago.  Now they're owned by Anheuser-Busch
and instead of being brewed in Latrobe PA, they're just another
AB brand brewed in Newark NJ.  =(

JW> "For some weird reason, tho, US Fosters is better than at home"

JW> Imagine that!

Heh.  It's probably a different brew for export.  A lot of 
export breweries do that.  Remember how I told about one of
my Mexican tenants and how he would never buy Corona at the
local liquor store because in Mexico, Corona was cheap
swill "for poor people"?  I've since found out that he might
as well have bought some Corona down here - it's not the same
stuff they sell locally.  

JW> Microbrews!!!! Sam Adams...."

[laughs] He's right about the microbrews, but I wouldn't put
Sam Adams in that category any more.  They've certainly held
on to their quality - even their light beer in drinkable in
a pinch! - but they're way too successful and far too widely
distributed nowadays to be considered a micro.

JW>  "you can buy Coopers Beer from Wholefoods."

This is good news, because I was planning to get to Whole Foods
and Trader Joe's this weekend.



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Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, 
minutus carborata descendum pantorum
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